Soooo Not Normal

T E S S A

Emma just let me go back to a room where a boy is waiting for me. Alone! Wait. Her friend just died, why wouldn't she?! I feel a little bad at how excited I am, seeing as Emma is missing Cicily and Jack has no idea what even happened to me.

Right as I think this, my phone rings. It's him. As I pick it up, I realize that I've missed loads of texts from Jack. I guess Emma told him.

I sigh and pick up the phone. "Hey, Jack!" My perkiness sounds fake, even to me.

"Babe! Why didn't you call me? I thought that you were dead or something! I'm walking into the hospital right now."

Uh-oh. "Umm, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"I kinda already have a visitor. It might be rude for you to show up at the same time."

He stops. "Who's your visitor?" Shoot. Shootshootshootshoot.

"Umm, just someone from Chemistry."

"Who is it?" I'm stopped in front of my room.

"Umm, just a friend. You don't need to worry about it."

"Tessa, I'm coming up." At this point, I've had enough.

"Bye, Jack. I have to go." I quickly hang up the phone and walk into my room. I toss Peter his Skittles and sit on the bed.

"Soo, um, this is awkward, but my boyfriend is coming up, and I don't want to be around him. So, I was wondering if you would help me sneak out of the hospital."

"What?! I can't do that! It's against the rules!"

"Emma left, and she has a concussion. I'll be fine. I just want to go home and watch The Office or something. I promise I won't do anything stressful."

He pauses. "Okay, fine." I get a text from Jack.

I'm in the elevator. Just tell me who the visitor is and I won't get mad.

I roll my eyes and shut off my phone. Peter looks at me as he pops a blue Skittle in his mouth.

"Who was that?" I raise an eyebrow and he turns red. "Sorry, that was weird and kind of stalkerish."

I laugh. "It kind of was." Hey, at least he's honest.

"I'm so sorry." He says.

"Apology accepted," I reply, grinning. "I mean, it wasn't that big of a deal, right?"

Suddenly, Peter turns to the door. What is he doing? A split second later, I hear footsteps. I sigh and roll my eyes.

"That would be my boyfriend. Yeah, The Office is looking good right now." I'm trying to act calm, but inside I'm panicking. He told me to stay away from Peter. What am I going to do?

I plop onto my bed next to Peter. "So, in, like, two seconds, my boyfriend is going to come in, so just act normal." I grab the remote and turn on the tv. As I select the Netflix icon, a thought strikes me. "You watch The Office, right?"

"Umm, sort of? I watch it with May sometimes."

"Good. Emma's seen, like, two episodes and she doesn't like it." I hear a knock on the door. I toss the remote to Peter. "Turn on the ninth season of the Office, episode ten."

I open the door partway, just enough so that he can see me and not Peter.

"Hey, Jack."

"Babe, are you okay?" I can tell that he's just putting on a show for whoever he thinks is in the room. He shoves the door open and wraps me in a hug right as the theme song from The Office starts playing. He looks up, startled, and makes eye contact with Peter.

"What is that?" He asks bluntly.

"Jack, rude! You know that he's a human being, right? And you know Peter. We all have our third period together."

"No, I mean, what is he doing in your hospital room? How did he know before I did?"

"Jack, he's Emma's chemistry partner. They were going to meet up after school, so she had to tell him what happened."

"Well, where's Emma?"

"She just left, and we were watching The Office. I didn't want to be lonely."

"Well, I'm here now, so he can leave." What do I do?

"Jack, no. It's fine."

"No, it's not." Jack snaps. Peter stands up.

"I'll go, it's fine." He says. I sigh.

"Peter, you can stay if you want."

"No, it's fine. You guys should probably spend some time together." As he leaves, I make an impulse decision. I like Peter, he's a good friend. I want to see him more.

So I lean forward and pull him into a hug.

"You're welcome back whenever," I say as he leaves. He smiles and nods.

I turn around and see that Jack is completely livid. Like, I'm-so-scared-by-his-face-I-might-scream livid.

"Seriously? Are you cheating on me with him or something?"

"What? No! Why would I? I have you!"

"Then why are you acting like you're single?"

"I'm not! You're just being possessive!"

"Excuse me? Now you're being unfair!"

"How dare you! I just watched one of my friends die, and you're too selfish to admit that you're wrong or see if I'm okay!" Wow, this crash is letting a lot of emotions loose. I see his face turn white, and my heart chills. Oh no.

But as he opens his mouth to scream at me, a nurse runs in. "Sir, I'll have to ask you to leave. You're disrupting our patient." I look at her gratefully. She smiles in return.

Jack stutters. "B-b-but-"

The nurse cuts him off. "Leave, or I'll call security."

He leaves without saying goodbye, muttering angrily the entire time. I shut the door and fall onto my bed. I grab the remote and press play.

Word Count //952 Words\\